1. Field of the Invention
In refuse compactors, of the type which include a bin having a power-actuated compacting blade therein, provision must be made for the included lid to be incapable of opening when the compacting blade is in operation, while otherwise providing for the lid or a section thereof to be opened for placement of refuse in the bin, and for the lid at another time to be wholly opened and disposed so that the entire bin can be engaged and partially inverted by the power mechanism of a hauling truck, and into which truck the bin then dumps. Efforts to provide such a lid without mechanical complexity, and yet a lid which can be readily and conveniently manipulated, have not been without substantial problems. The present invention was conceived in a successful effort to produce a lid which avoids such problems and meets the above criteria.
2. The Prior Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,301,414; 3,625,140; 3,680,478; 3,861,298 and 3,961,573 represent the most relevant prior art known to applicant.
The above prior art--considered singly or together--does not anticipate, nor suggest as obvious, the particular structure and function of the herein-claimed lid unit for a refuse compactor, and applicant has no knowledge of any prior art disclosing such particular structure and its function.